Costa Rica no. 6. Arrival

This is my sixth time here in Costa Rica, my sixth time in Alajuela, and it will be my sixth time in Monteverde. Thrilling. I have visited other spots in this country, but I also feel a strong connection to these two places. I'm also kind of lazy when it comes to travel, and if a new place works for me, I am very likely to keep coming back. I am not a bucket list traveller, and as well as being lazy, I am also prone to forming relationships, lasting friendships if possible, with people who live in these places. This also squares very soundly with some of my core values, which are about valuing persons over experiences. This is not user-friendly, and I am not user-friendly, because I really am opposed to the consumerist mentality that seems to have engulfed nearly everyone who lives on this planet. Way too many pigs at the trough. My one concern about writing a travel journal this time is that I don't think that many of you are going to find it very interesting, Gentle Reader, unless you are each going to be willing to forget about novelties and focus instead on the human lives that surround us wherever we might happen to go. If there is a theme to this trip, then it's probably going to be focussed more on some of my own perceptions and observations. I am also treating this trip, as I tend to do with all of my travels, as a kind of do-it-yourself CBT, or, Cognitive-Behavioural-Therapy. Which is to say, I am taking some of the kinds of situations that usually drive me up the wall at home in Vancouver, and I am going to try to put a different cast on them while I am here in a foreign country. Well, the challenge is on, ever since both my flights yesterday. I am very used to insulating myself from others, which is kind an urban coping strategy that afflicts anyone who lives in close proximity with others, and I happen to live downtown, and I hate being reminded that others are also nearby. Anyone who has flown economy class already knows that most first world of problems, which is being crammed face in ass with complete strangers at 37,000 feet in the air. This, I think, is why a lot of plane passengers won't even talk to the person next to them. But I decided some time ago to not be that way, and for the most part I have been pleasantly surprised. I haven't made any best friends forever this way, and often my neighbouring passengers and I have only exchanged a few friendly words. Sometimes the conversations have lasted nearly the entire flight. It really doesn't matter, because I think the near proximity, especially if people are sleeping next to each other, does something on a deep level that connects us to one another, whether we happen to like it or not. On both my flights to Costa Rica yesterday, I exchanged hardly a word with my seat mates but, especially on the second flight, there was a sense that we liked each other and were quite comfortable close together, a young Australian woman who spent most of the flight sleeping, on my left, and a young Quebecois man on my right who spent a lot of time on his laptop. I am further testing out this theory here on my first day in Costa Rica. But this also means giving others a chance to come around on their own terms and to build on that. For example, the Slovenian family at the breakfast table that spoke entirely their native language. But there was a friendly vibe there, plus, I think that only the wife spoke English. Then there was the young Costa Rican guest seated at my left, too involved with his precious little phone to give me the time of day, or so it seemed. Then I just asked him a couple of leading questions and we had a really interesting conversation for the next thirty minutes or so. Among other things, we talked about Costa Rica's status as one of the few, if not the only, country in the world that doesn't have a military (it was abolished in 1948). I suggested to him that that could be the reason why the people in Costa Rica seem so relaxed and friendly, because they aren't living under the stress of militarization. He agreed with me, then added as a caveat that that could also be the reason why some young Costa Ricans, especially men, tend to be rather lazy and irresponsible, because they lack discipline. Any of you, my Gentle Reader, remember how if any young man seemed like an irresponsible good-for-nothing, then what was needed to cure him was two years in the army? Well, I do sort of agree with that, given that there is nothing like having a sargent on steroids breathing fire down your neck and otherwise busting your ass for you day after day after day. I even wonder if here in Canada, we should institute for young men between ages eighteen and twenty, two years of compulsory community service, but not military. I really fail to see a silver lining in teaching people how to kill, but on the other hand, some asses need to be kicked, and kicked rather hard. Alajuela is a small city, quite laid back, quite gritty, but also full of flowers and fragrance. It gets pretty hot during the day, temperatures often rising above thirty, but it is often breezy which cools things down a bit. I visited the cathedral, where I sat in the middle, between two open doors and enjoyed the cross current of cool air and the sweet fragrance of flowers from the adjoining gardens. Then I explored the market, where I bought new earbuds, since the ones I brought with me broke on the plane. It is your classic indoor Latino market and you can get almost anything there. It looks rather like what the Granville Island Market purports to be, but still isn't, not even after forty years of trying. I took a long walk in the sun on a road leading into a rural area, then on the way back stopped in a patio cafe at a mall for a milkshake and coffee. Later, when I tried to order coffee, I had to try three times, and still didn't get the waiter's attention. Finally, I asked a customer who was evidently a friend of his if she would ask him for me (Spanish fluency really has its rewards here). He was embarrassed and a bit grumpy at first but quickly got over it after I humoured him a bit. Of course, I also could have taken it personally and too seriously, but really, what's the point? After I returned to the bed and breakfast, following an early dinner in a local Mexican restaurant (don't ask), a Canadian visitor from Toronto asked if I could translate for her and the staff, who doesn't speak English, which I did and it worked out well. I have told staff that any time I can help this way, just let me know. Then, my laptop stopped functioning because the battery is suddenly dead and they don't have the right kind of cable here for plugging it in, so it looks like I'm back to relying on the kindness of my hosts for internet access. Fortunately they are very kind here. Really, as i get older, I am really treating these trips abroad, and by extension life itself, as performance art. All for now.